I
was truly in want of this refreshment.
22nd July. Today I presented my letter, and the Persian merchant
received me with a welcome. He conducted me to a Christian family,
and promised to make arrangements for the continuation of my journey
as soon as possible. In this instance, also, the conversation was
carried on more by the means of signs than words.
There were twenty Christian families in this town, who are under the
care of a French missionary and have a very pretty church. I looked
forward with pleasure to conversing again in a language with which I
was familiar, but learnt that the missionary was on a journey, so
that I was not better off than at Ravandus, as the people with whom
I lived spoke only Persian.
The man, whose trade was that of a carpenter, had a wife, six
children, and an apprentice. They all lived in the same room, in
which they gave me a place with great readiness. The whole family
were uncommonly good and obliging towards me, were very open-
hearted, and if I bought fruit, eggs, or anything of the kind, and
offered them any, they accepted it with great modesty. But it was
not only towards myself that they were so kind, but also towards
others; no beggar went away from their threshold unrelieved; and yet
this family was terrible, and made my stay a complete purgatory.
The mother, a very stupid scolding woman, bawled and beat her
children the whole day. Ten minutes did not pass without her
dragging her children about by the hair, or kicking and thumping
them. The children were not slow in returning it; and, besides
that, fought among themselves; so that I had not a moment's quiet in
my corner, and was not unfrequently in danger of coming in for my
share, for they amused themselves by spitting and throwing large
blocks of wood at each other's heads. The eldest son several times
throttled his mother in such a way that she became black and blue in
the face. I always endeavoured, indeed, to establish peace; but it
was very seldom that I succeeded, as I was unfortunately not
sufficient master of the language to make them understand the
impropriety of their conduct.
It was only in the evening, when the father returned, that there was
any order of peace; they dare not quarrel then, much less fight.
I never met with such conduct among any people - even the poorest or
lowest classes of the so-called heathens or unbelievers; I never saw
their children attempt to strike their parents. When I left Sauh-
Bulak, I wrote a letter for the missionary, in which I directed his
attention to the failings of this family, and besought him to
counteract them, by teaching them that religion does not consist
merely in prayers and fasts, in bible-reading, and going to church.
